Range expansion of two box jellyfish (Cnidaria, Cubozoa) in southern Gulf of Mexico
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NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Check List 15 (3): 405–410
https://doi.org/10.15560/15.3.405
Range expansion of two box jellyfish (Cnidaria, Cubozoa) in
southern Gulf of Mexico
José María Ahuatzin-Hernández1, Andrea del Jesús Couoh-Concha1, Lucio Loman-Ramos2,
Lorena Violeta León-Deniz1
1 Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Carretera Mérida-Xmatkuil Km 15.5, A.P. 97100, Mérida,
Yucatán, México. 2 Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados, Unidad Mérida. Km 6, carretera antigua a
Progreso, A.P. 73, 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, México.
Corresponding author: Lorena Violeta León Deniz, lorena.leon@correo.uady.mx
Abstract
We report range extensions of Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Müller, 1859) and Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897
to 2 coastal lagoons in the southern Gulf of Mexico. These new records are the first for these species in Yucatán and
Mexico.
Key words
Coastal lagoon, medusae, new records, Yucatán.
Academic editor: Luis Felipe Skinner | Received 2 March 2019 | Accepted 2 May 2019 | Published 17 May 2019
Citation: Ahuatzin-Hernández JM, Couoh-Concha AJ, Loman-Ramos L, León-Deniz LV (2019) Range expansion of two box jellyfish (Cnidaria,
Cubozoa) in southern Gulf of Mexico. Check List 15 (3): 405–410. https://doi.org/10.15560/15.3.405
Introduction quadrumanus (Müller, 1859) (Segura-Puertas et al.
2009, Lasley et al. 2016). Their occurrence in coastal
The class Cubozoa (subphylum Medusozoa; Bentlage lagoons in the south part of the Gulf of Mexico is poorly
et al. 2009) contains 2 orders, Carybdeida and Chiro- documented. Of the 3 species recorded for the southwest
dropida, which together have 61 valid species (Collins Gulf, T. haplonema, C. marsupialis, and C. quadrum-
and Jarms 2019). Cubozoans occur in tropical and sub- anus, only the last species has been found in a coastal
tropical zones around the world (Stewart 1996). They are lagoon (Flores-Galicia and De la Cruz-Francisco 2018).
exclusively marine and currently are of great scientific Tripedalia cystophora and Chiropsalmus quadruma-
interest because they are considered dangerous species nus are 2 of the most frequently studied species (Lasley
(Bentlage and Lewis 2012, Cedeño-Posso and Lecompte et al. 2016). They have been used as a model in ecologi-
2013). cal and neurobiological investigations, which focus on
There are 6 species of cubozoans reported for the Gulf the advanced sensory complexes, compound eyes, and
of Mexico: Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897, Tam- high toxicity of these species (Stewart 1996, Coates
oya haplonema Müller, 1859, Alatina alata (Reynaud, 2003, Gershwin 2006, Garm et al. 2007).
1830) Alatina grandis (Agassiz & Mayer, 1902), Caryb- Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, was first described
dea marsupialis (Linnaeus, 1758), and Chiropsalmus in Brazil (Müller 1859) and has since been recorded
Copyright Ahuatzin-Hernández et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
406 Check List 15 (3)
Figure 1. Worldwide distribution map of Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897 and Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Müller, 1859). Previous
records: red dots = T. cystophora; black dots = C. quadrumanus (Gershwin 2006, Ekins and Gershwin 2014). New records: green dot = C.
quadrumanus in Chelem; yellow dot = T. cystophora in Dzilam.
from 3 states of the USA in the northern Gulf of Mex- first record of both species for Mexican waters and the
ico, i.e., Texas (Guest 1959), Mississippi (Phillips and state of Yucatán.
Burke 1970), and in Georgia (Kraeuter and Setzler 1975)
and in the southwest Gulf of Mexico from the state of
Campeche (Gómez-Aguirre 1986). This jellyfish also
Methods
has been reported in Belize (Larson 1982) and Colombia The coastal lagoons of Dzilam de Bravo and Chelem
(Cedeño-Posso and Lecompte 2013). Elsewhere in the are in northern Yucatán state, Mexico. Dzilam lagoon,
world Chiropsalmus quadrumanus has been recorded within the state reserve of Dzilam, is surrounded by
from the Madras and Puri coasts (India), Sumatra (Indo- mangrove forest principally composed of Rhizophora
nesia), Pointe Nore, Moita Seca, and Banana Island mangle (Linnaeus, 1753) and Laguncularia racemosa
i(West Africa), and Margarita Island i(Venezuela) (Ger- (Linnaeus) CF Gaertner, 1807. The lagoon is connected
shwin 2006) (Fig. 1). to the sea by an inlet in its central part and salinity lev-
Since the first description of T. cystophora in Jamaica els are generally estuarine. The principal seagrasses that
(Conant 1897), this species has been reported in several cover the bottom are Halodule wrightii Ascherson, 1868,
localities around the world. Records from the Atlantic Thalassia testudinum (Banks ex Köning, 1805), Syrin-
Ocean include Brazil (Migotto et al. 2002), Jamaica and godium filiforme Kützing, 1860, and Ruppia maritima
Puerto Rico (Coates 2003), and Florida (Orellana and (Linnaeus, 1753).
Collins 2011). It was reported for the first time in the Gulf In contrast, the lagoon of Chelem is between the port
of Mexico by Lasley et al. (2016) near Bonita Springs, of Progreso and the town of Chelem. It is surrounded
Florida. It has also been reported from the Pacific Ocean: by R. mangle and is one of the lagoons most affected by
Japan (Uchida 1970), Costa Rica (Rodríguez-Sáenz and urban growth. The lagoon is usually euhaline, connected
Segura-Puertas 2009), Australia, Thailand, Indonesia to the sea by an artificial inlet, and is covered principally
(Ekins and Gershwin 2014), and Hawaii (Crow et al. by H. wrightii and T. testudinum (Herrera-Silveira and
2015), and from the Indian Ocean, from Aldabra Atoll Morales-Ojeda 2010).
(Ekins and Gershwin 2014, Lasley et al. 2016). We docu- Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Müller, 1859) and
ment new records of T. cystophora and C. quadrumanus Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897 were found in sepa-
from the southern Gulf of Mexico. These represent the rate lagoons, either by surface trawls of 5 minutes dura-
Ahuatzin-Hernández et al. | Box jellyfish in coastal lagoons of Yucatán 407
Figure 2. Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897. A. Paired gonads (GO), the rhopalia (RO), and the 3 pedalia per side (PE). B. Frown-shaped
rhopaliar niche ostium (NR). Scale bars: A = 6 mm, B = 1 mm.
tion with a zooplankton net of 60 cm in diameter and 333 Results
μm of clear mesh in 6 stations of the Dzilam de Bravo
lagoon (T. cystophora), or with a hand net of 25 cm in Tripedalia cystophora Conant, 1897
diameter and 2 cm of clear mesh in Chelem lagoon (C. Figure 2
quadrumanus). All samples were fixed in 4% formalin Materials examined. Mexico. Yucatan, Dzilam de
solution and neutralized with sodium borate. The jelly- Bravo (21°19′ N, 089°58′ W), Lorena León Deniz leg.,
fish were identified according to Gershwin (2006) and 1.5 m depth, May 2012 (1 specimen, UADY-YUC-CC-
Bentlage and Lewis (2012) using morphological fea- 250-11-19373).
tures (Table 1) and deposited in the Colección zoológica Identification. Observed features of the collected speci-
de invertebrados, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y mens: cube-shaped bell with 3 pedalia in each of the cor-
Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY- ners; pedalia length 1/2 to 2/3 height of bell; bell slightly
YUC-CC), and the Cnidarian´s Collection from the Gulf higher than wide, flattened apically in a side view; exum-
of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, Universidad Nacional brella sparsely covered with small warts of nemato-
Autónoma de México (YUC-CC). cysts; small and flat stomach, connected with 4 gastric
Table 1. Comparison of the average morphometric measurements of Chiropsalmus quadrumanus and Tripedalia cystophora with other
records (minimum and maximum values).
C. quadrumanus T. cystophora Ekins and Gershwin
Gershwin (2006)
(Müller, 1859) Conant, 1897 (2014)
Bell length (mm) 27.5 (19–33) 100 8.6 (7–11) 10.9
Bell width (mm) 28.8 (16–38) 120 10.3 (8–13) 12.8
Inter rhopaliar distance (mm) 14.3 (8–19) — 4.6 (4–5) —
Pedalia width (mm) 7.9 (5–11) — 2.3 (2–3) —
Pedalia length (mm) 15 (11–18) — 4.1 (3.5–5) —
No. Tentacles per pedalia 6–7 Up to 7–9 1 1
408 Check List 15 (3)
Figure 3. Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Müller, 1859). A. Branched pedalia (PE), numerous tentacles (TM), and the rhopalia (RO). B. Dome
shaped rhopaliar niche ostium (NR) and clusters of nematocysts on the umbrellar surface (CN). Scale bars: A = 16 mm, B = 1.5 mm.
sacs directed in position to the velar channels; 4 paired specimens: swimming bell slightly wider than high with
gonads located in the gastric pouches, usually in form of a rounded and thickened apex, whitish and translucent;
a butterfly and separated by an interradial septum and mesoglea rigid; nematocysts clusters present on sur-
attached to septum at center; system of channels con- face of exumbrella and concentrating these ones moder-
necting the gonads through septum; 4 rhopalia located ately on fold of umbrellar edge; leaf form gonads joined
on each of the walls on exumbrella; frown-shaped rhopa- along the interradial septum and extending outward
liar niche ostium; spermatophores present. from 4 gastric saccules; manubrium with 4 pointed lips;
Tripedalia cystophora was determined using mor- 4 branched pedalia with numerous tentacles; 4 rhopalia
phological features such as the number of pedalia per with niche dome-shaped located each on the 4 walls of
side (key and diagnostic for the identification of this spe- the exumbrella, lacking rhopaliar horns, Velarium broad
cies), form of the rhopaliar niche, location and number and with numerous velar channels.
of rhopalia, and shape and location of the gonads (Bent- The identification of C. quadrumanus was determined
lage and Lewis 2012). This species is easily recognizable by the diagnostic characters of the genus, such as the
because it differs from other species of Carybdeida by branching pedalia with the presence of numerous tenta-
the presence of 3 pedalia on each side. This character cles, the number of gastric saccules, shape of the gonads,
might cause confusion with C. quadrumanus due to the shape and location of the rhopaliar niche, and the pres-
presence of multiple tentacles; however, T. cystophora ence of nematocysts warts on the surface of the umbrella
has a single, branched pedalia per side (Lasley et al. (Gershwin 2006, Cedeño-Posso and Lecompte 2013).
2016). Our measurements of this species from Dzilam Our comparison of measurements of our specimens
are slightly smaller than measurements of the bell length with those made by Müller (1859) in the original descrip-
and width provided by Ekins and Gershwin (2014); this tion of this species shows that our specimens are clearly
suggests that our specimens were in the early stages of smaller. They are, however, more similar in size to Ger-
development. shwin’s (2006) specimens. The presence of nematocyst
Bentlage and Lewis (2012) noted sexual dimorphism warts in our specimens is characteristic of the genus
in these species. However, in this case the sex of each (Gershwin 2006). Two specimens from Chelem lagoon
of our specimens could not be determined because they have 6 tentacles, whilst the other 6 jellyfish had 7 ten-
were juvenile, or the gonads were damaged by the pro- tacles. Müller (1859) and Gershwin (2006) indicated a
cess of collection and fixation. range of 7–9 tentacles.
Chiropsalmus quadrumanus (Müller, 1859)
Figure 3
Discussion
The new records of Chiropsalmus quadrumanus and
Materials examined. Mexico. Yucatan, Chelem (21°07′
Tripedalia cystophora from 2 coastal lagoons of Yuca-
N, 089°40′ W), Lorena León Deniz leg., 2.0 m depth,
tán represent range extensions of these species. These
November 2016 (2 specimens, YUC-CC-254-11-01542,
two species are associated with the mangrove forest and
01543).
estuarine ecosystems (Gershwin 2006, Ekins and Gersh-
Identification. Observed features of the collected win 2014).Ahuatzin-Hernández et al. | Box jellyfish in coastal lagoons of Yucatán 409
An earlier record of T. cystophora was reported in Banks & Solander ex KD Koening. Annals of botany (König &
the Gulf of Mexico by Lasley et al. (2016) in the north- Sims) 2:96.
Bentlage L, Cartwright P, Yanagihara AA, Lewis C, Richards GS,
ern Gulf in Florida. Our new record extends this species’
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